


Void

by raininshadows



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, Medical Torture, Nobody Anatomy, Vivisection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-23
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-07-01 07:15:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15769218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raininshadows/pseuds/raininshadows
Summary: Shortly after the transformation and creation of Organization XIII, Vexen studies what he and the others have become.





	Void

**Author's Note:**

> "Chemists" are supposed to be Vexen's equivalent of Xemnas's Sorcerers, Demyx's Dancers, etc.

The question of their current anatomy is one everyone has, but nobody really wants the answer to.

On the one hand, they all look normal. Vexen can see muscles shifting inside his hands when he moves his fingers; the same veins are visible on the underside of his wrist as before he became a Nobody; he can still feel bones under his skin. The bump where he'd broken his collarbone as a child is still there. He can still feel pain. On the other hand, he no longer needs to eat or breathe. His hair no longer grows, and he doesn't bruise. He doesn't have a pulse. In short, there's no evidence that there's actually anything under the skin any more. 

And science is about finding the answers to all the questions, not just the ones that don't make you rearrange your view of the world too much. 

So one day, when everything is quiet, Vexen takes one of the Dusks down to the laboratory and has his Chemists restrain it on a table. He pulls out a scalpel and begins to cut. He slices through its skin with no particular difficulty, although it offers a surprising amount of resistance for how thin it turns out to be. Wisps of darkness leak out. The Dusk tries to pull away, but it's pinned down by his Chemists. 

_Skin is thin but surprisingly strong_ , Vexen writes in his lab notebook. _While actions indicate the presence of muscular and nervous systems, there is no evidence of them on examination. No internal anatomy is visible. Instead of blood, the Dusk appears to be leaking a black gas which dissipates on contact with air._

He draws the scalpel down further, cutting a gash a full six inches in length into its "arm". The creature seems to be writhing in pain now - Even would have stopped here, if not before, because even animals don't deserve to be vivisected for scientific curiosity. But Dusks vanish into nothingness as soon as they're killed, and this is the easiest way to get a look at Nobody anatomy. _The Dusk appears to be in distress, and may be experiencing pain_ , he writes. His Chemists still hold it, not even apparently noticing the struggles of their fellow Nobody.

Vexen pulls the sides of the incision in its arm apart, and the Dusk practically screams. Its back arches upwards and its mouth opens unnaturally wide, although no sound emerges. The darkness gushes from its arm like a geyser of steam, rising and fading into the air. And underneath, he can see enough to confirm his worst suspicions - he can see the interior of the other side of the Dusk's arm. There's nothing inside but darkness. He presses the edges back together and splashes some Potion on them; they heal immediately. "Let it go," he orders the Chemists, and they step back as one. The Dusk leaps off the table and into one of the more recessed corners of the lab, where it almost seems to be cowering, although it's careful to not touch anything. 

"Go," he tells the Dusk. It vanishes into a portal. "Get me another one - one of the tough ones," he instructs the Chemists, and begins to write in the notebook. When they return, he's ready to go with his second attempt. It's a sturdy Dusk, and it jumps up onto the table without complaint. The stronger ones are often keen on serving their masters however necessary. The Chemists step in to hold it there anyway. 

_Let's see now,_ Vexen thinks, and cuts down the center of its chest. 

As before, the Dusk reacts as if in pain, tensing and drawing into itself; as before, the incision spews blackness. Vexen reaches into its chest. He's done this before on cadavers, he knows what to expect - but this time, he meets no slippery resistance. The Dusk is hollow, and he can reach through to its back. He brings his other hand up underneath it, and he can touch hands through the thin skin. 

The Dusk is perfectly still, as if petrified. Vexen draws his hand out and slathers the gash with Potion, but it's still not moving. His glove is covered in a sort of black powder, and unlike the darkness that had been gushing from his cut, it's not diffusing into the air on contact. He shucks off his gloves, careful not to contaminate them, into one of the specialized darkness-proofed specimen jars and seals it; then he turns back to the Dusk. It's curled into itself now, as if it's attempting to imitate the fetal position. It almost looks human. 

"Get up," he orders it. The Dusk sits up on the table, the Potion absorbing into its chest but not entirely gone. "You can go now." It nods once, rapidly - this one must be more intelligent than most of them, it's not every Dusk that can respond to orders like that - and leaps into a portal. He looks up at his Chemists. "You too." 

_Moment of truth_ , he thinks suddenly after they vanish, while he's putting another pair of gloves on and retrieving a clean scalpel. He's tougher than a Dusk, certainly. This may hurt, but it won't be fatal, and what wonders it will work for science. 

He grimaces. That's not too far off from the train of thought that led to this situation to begin with. But it's as true this time as it was last time, so he opens a bottle of Potion in preparation, sets the bandages down on the bench in case he gets blood, rolls the sleeve of his lab coat up, and presses the scalpel down into his right arm. 

Blackness wells up around the scalpel along with an electric pain. When he pulls the scalpel down, closer to his shoulder, it gushes with the same darkness that the Dusks had carried inside them. He can't bring himself to put a finger into his own arm and feel around inside, but when he presses near the gap, his skin gives as if there's nothing but air beneath, and darkness surges from the incision. 

There's nothing inside them at all, Vexen realizes.


End file.
